What is your Killer Voucher App (or Service)?

Alberta's Action Plan: Bringing Technology to Market is still under development with a consultation meeting taking place July 29 in Edmonton that will discuss the development of a framework for publicly funded organizations that support world class research and innovation in Alberta.

The topic of technology vouchers was summarized previously. It appears that companies will be able to apply for up to $60,000 in vouchers to access services from publicly funded organizations that support world class research and innovation in Alberta. In either $10,000 or $50,000, denominations companies would buy a voucher for $2,500 or $12,500 to access services. The max. for the length of the program (whatever that may be) is $60,000. The types of services are unclear, but one can imagine this might be for consulting from an Entrepreneur in Residence at Calgary Technologies Inc., a grad student researcher from the University of Alberta, and a testing environment at TRLabs. Perhaps it could also be redeemed for office or video conferencing rent at CTI, an ECAT or ABCTech event, or a research report from any of these organizations and others.

What else might we imagine about the program? If it had $70 million (a rumoured amount over 3 years - the typical length of program), this program would scale in interesting ways. First off, given the maximum of $60,000, this program would assist nearly 1,200 Alberta companies working in areas where world class research and innovation might help and where these companies would be willing to spend $15,000 on these services.  

If these assumptions are correct, it appears that there would be about 40 Alberta organizations (universities, colleges, technical schools, and NGOs) with the ability to accept vouchers. Let's assume they can service an equal share of the vouchers - 30 vouchers each or 10/year (1,200 companies wanting $60,000 each and willing to spend $15,000 / 40 voucher redeemers). They would earn $1.8 million in vouchers and $450,000 in cash (assuming cash goes to redeemers and not back into the program) - that is potential a $2.25 million over 3 years ($750,000/year) for each of 40 organizations that are able to get an equal share of maximum denomination vouchers and cash.

Ok, lots of assumptions and questions. The FAQ does not answer too many of these questions. Here are mine:

What is the value and length of the program? What is the budget?

How many target Alberta companies exist?

Where does the cash go?

How many organizations are there that can accept vouchers?

Will universities and others with bricks and mortar be able to offer up rent?

Can the $10,000 voucher be used to buy a $50,000 voucher?

What will $60,000 (well, $75,000 depending on where the cash goes) be able to purchase support world class research and innovation in Alberta?

Is this what Alberta companies are looking for in support of world class research and innovation?

Are there quotas? Could a small number of organizations develop products and services that dominate voucher requests?

In addition to these practical questions. I have a challenge. Sorry, no vouchers available for prizes yet. 

What would the killer voucher application or service be? One that scales, dominates and expands to be able to get more than an equal share of whatever the program is worth?